Torkel Patterson, a former Asia hand at the US National Security Council (NSC), paid a low-key visit to Taiwan late last month at the invitation of the Taiwan Thinktank, sources told the Taipei Times yesterday.
"Patterson just paid a rather low-key visit here," a high-ranking official disclosed to the Taipei Times.
Another government insider confirmed that Patterson visited Taipei. "The only public occasion [during his visit] was a talk on the afternoon of Feb. 28, in which about 20 to 30 officials and scholars took part," the source revealed.
The talk was arranged by the Asia-Pacific forum, a sub-branch of the newly founded Taiwan Thinktank, which has close ties with the administration of President Chen Shui-bian (
Staffers at the think tank confirmed Patterson's visit, but they declined to disclose further details of the former US official's trip.
Patterson, who resigned from his NSC post in late January "for personal reasons," visited Taipei with his wife. It was his first trip to Taiwan since leaving the administration of US President George W. Bush.
During his six-day trip to Taiwan, Patterson and his wife also visited Hualien for what one official described as a "relaxing" engagement.
No further details were provided, but the Taiwan Thinktank is likely to provide details about Patterson's Feb. 28 talk in its upcoming newsletter, sources said.
Called both quick-witted and friendly toward Taiwan, the former NSC official is known for his penetrating views on cross-strait relations.
Prior to joining the NSC, Patterson worked for US defense contractor Raytheon between 1998 and 2000, during which he visited Taipei more than 40 times, Patterson told the Taipei Times in an interview in Dec. 2000.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS